Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into legislation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the primary within the nation to successfully finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, much like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The legislation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they will stop performing the process as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when now we have a duty as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion providers throughout the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further limit the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll even have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The bills are a part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive courtroom that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes docs to remove a “dead unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after capsules resembling Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics already stopped offering abortions after the governor signed a six-week ban earlier this month.

With the state’s two remaining abortion clinics expected to stop providing providers, it's unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors can be empowered to decide which ladies qualify and that these abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one among at least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that permits personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer time and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.